As expected, Young and FitzGerald take most of Merriman’s vote. Young has been quite transfer friendly so far, so might get enough of a rub in the next count to overtake Ni Fhalluin, but that’ll likely be it for him. Cronin needs a big boost from him to stay in it.

FitzGerald ends his disappointing run, and he’ll go back to the local level presumably. His 1236 votes are now to be distributed. I would presume his voters will err more towards the centre/centre-right, so both Fine Gael and Labour will be hoping for a boost before we get to the serious business of the night, still a few counts away. No changes in position in the upper echelons at all today, but you have to imagine we’ll see one surprise tomorrow. Real world commitments will probably interfere with my commentary – nothing for it – but I’ll still go through the whole thing count by count whenever I get a chance. Until then.